articles 1 to 15 of 383
With Austerity Under Fire, Countries Seek a More Balanced Solution
Six years after the onset of the global financial crisis, economists and policymakers continue to fight bitterly over how to tackle the world's economic woes. Is fiscal stimulus or fiscal austerity the best medicine? Austerity advocates have largely won out -- until now. With many nations still struggling, and the findings of an influential study supporting austerity now under attack, backlash against that strategy is growing. The question is: Where can troubled countries go from here?
From: May 22, 2013
Fueling Growth in Uncertain Times
Wall Street and Capitol Hill are in different cities, but where dialog on major economic issues is concerned, they might as well be on different continents. To bridge this gap, the Wharton School recently launched the Wharton Public Policy Initiative. On March 7, the Initiative hosted its first major event, the Wharton Economic Summit, in New York City. In this special report, Knowledge@Wharton covers themes from the Summit, which opened with a discussion on leadership between GE CEO Jeff Immelt and Michael Useem, director of Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change Management. Other articles -- based on sessions at the summit -- deal with health care, innovation, real estate and energy.
From: May 01, 2013
The Natural Gas Boom: Cheap Energy, but at What Cost?
In the next year or two, there will be such a large surplus of natural gas and crude oil in the U.S. that the country won’t “know what to do with it,” said Anas Alhajji, chief economist at NGP Energy Capital Management, at the Wharton Economic Summit 2013. But John Deutch, former head of the CIA, pointed out that unconventional oil and gas production “involves very serious environmental impacts on air quality, water quality, community and land use.” He added that there is also “a climate issue out there that is going to hit this world.”
From: April 30, 2013
A Need for Speed: Why Building More Roads Won't Conquer Gridlock
Everyone pays a price for road congestion, whether it's the tangible frustration felt by motorists or the substantial economic costs due to lost productivity. In a new working paper, Wharton real estate professor Gilles Duranton and his co-authors say that building more roads or expanding mass transit are not effective solutions to combating traffic. Instead, they suggest that cities need to take steps to adjust driver demand for travel to congested areas.
From: April 24, 2013
Research Roundup: The Financial Impact of Social Impact
Social impact has become a buzzword in business, but what does the evidence say about the success of social impact initiatives? In separate research papers, three Wharton professors -- Deborah Small, Franklin Allen and Susan Wachter -- look at whether "doing good" means doing well in different contexts: When it comes to corporate image, are "nice" firms perceived as less likely to succeed? How can banks serve rural populations and remain profitable? And can something as simple as planting a tree in an urban setting bump up real estate prices?
From: April 10, 2013
Same-sex Marriage: What's at Stake for Corporate America
The fact that nearly 300 U.S. corporations and other groups are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) suggests that denying federal rights to same-sex couples is bad for American companies. What administrative, financial and social issues are affected by this debate?
From: March 27, 2013
Whom Do Social Media Followers Belong to -- You, or Your Business?
When Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican on February 28, his more than two million Twitter followers stayed behind. While hardly known for being cutting edge, the Vatican was prescient enough to set up a social media account that expressly belonged to the papacy and not to an individual pope. But recent legal skirmishes at companies using social media suggest that these boundaries are not always so clear. Who owns a Twitter or Facebook account when personal and business uses are blurred? When an employee quits, can he take his account -- and his followers -- with him? Wharton experts weigh in.
From: March 13, 2013
Tracie McMillan on the 'American Way of Eating'
To report on food sourcing and access in the United States, author Tracie McMillan went undercover, picking garlic in the fields in California and working at a Walmart in Michigan and an Applebee's in New York. She published a book about what she learned from these experiences called The American Way of Eating. Knowledge@Wharton recently spoke with McMillan about how income level affects food consumption, who controls the food we eat and why the food system might be transformed if people threw away less food. (Podcast with transcript)
From: March 06, 2013
Why Business Schools Teach Transparency but Practice Ambiguity
Is academic research really worth the money that students are unwittingly paying for it? Not according to Larry Zicklin, former chairman of Neuberger Berman, a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business and a frequent lecturer on ethics at Wharton. In this opinion piece, he points out that if faculty members assumed larger teaching workloads while doing less research, universities could deliver a college education at a fraction of the present cost.
From: February 13, 2013
For the Global Economy in 2013, Happy Days Are Not Quite Here Again
Although the global economy is in better shape than it was during the worst days of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, don't expect to see a dramatic turnaround in 2013, say Wharton professors Mauro Guillen and Kent Smetters. In separate interviews with Knowledge@Wharton, they discuss some of the challenges that the U.S., Europe, China and emerging markets such as Brazil and India are facing going into the New Year. (Video with transcript)
From: January 16, 2013
Can Anti-Corruption Laws Help Combat Terrorists, Tyrants and Their Corporate Supporters?
Terrorists and criminal organizations rely on corruption, coupled with violence, to gain and maintain state sponsorship and protection -- if not full control over nations. Officials are now responding by supplementing the traditional tools of diplomacy, economic sanctions and export controls with far-reaching anti-corruption prosecution targeting companies and individuals profiting through bribery with such regimes and organizations. The immediacy and magnitude of the threats requires corporations engaged in international commerce to continue to ensure that their controls are adequate, say David N. Lawrence, Jeremy Maltby, Stephen Labaton, Ronak D. Desai and Matthew H. Lawrence in this opinion piece.
From: December 05, 2012
Why America Is Losing the Race for Entrepreneurial Talent
In 2005, immigrant entrepreneurs launched 52% of all startups in Silicon Valley. But today, the number has dropped to 44%, and America is not only losing the opportunity to create new jobs but also losing its competitive edge, argues Vivek Wadhwa in his book, The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent. In the 1980s, skilled immigrants could get green cards in as little as 18 months, but today it can take as long as 17 years. Failure to fix this problem, says Wadhwa in an interview, is killing American innovation. (Video with transcript)
From: November 20, 2012
One Organization's Fight against Hunger -- and Why Victory Is So Elusive
Bill Clark's job only gets harder. As executive director of Philabundance, a Philadelphia area hunger relief organization, he has this to say about today's food crisis: "The hunger that used to exist in inner cities or rural areas like Appalachia has leapt beyond those pockets into the middle and working classes. I don't think there is a zip code in the country today that is totally devoid of hunger." Clark talks about the challenges Philabundance faces at a time when natural disasters, cutbacks in social programs and unusually high unemployment have created a "tremendous" unmet need. (Podcast with transcript)
From: November 20, 2012
More Questions Than Answers: Assessing China's Leadership Transition
China's leadership transition took place during the 18th Communist Party Congress that ended November 15. As expected, Xi Jinping has succeeded Hu Jintao as the Party general secretary and head of the armed forces, and vice premier Li Keqiang moved into position to replace Wen Jiabao as prime minister when government positions are staffed next spring. Still, experts at Wharton and elsewhere note that the political change is touched with uncertainty as senior Communist Party leaders seek to bridge factional divisions and re-establish internal equilibrium in the wake of high-profile scandals.
From: November 20, 2012
What Now, Mr. President?
The election is over. After three feisty debates, hundreds of campaign stops, billions spent on ads and countless candidate "robo-calls," America has re-elected Barack Obama as Commander in Chief. Now the real work begins. What should the President prioritize over the next four years? Wharton faculty weigh in.
From: November 07, 2012
